posted by Abelle,
It doesn't matter who you're cheering for at this International, today's eliminations were a roller coaster of emotions and it's only Day 1.


Thankfully after today's matches, the remaining lower bracket matches will be Best-of-three series. It can't be easy to have just one game stand between you and your tournament dreams, but that was the reality for four teams today.



The first team to be sent home was ph Execration. They faced eu Team Secret, and it was the first of today's rather one-sided matches. YapzOr got to play his signature Rubick, and though he didn't stand out as much as he did in some of Secret's groupstage matches, his play was as solid as ever. The combined physical damage output of MidOne's Templar Assassin and MP's Phantom Lancer helped the team snowball to victory.

Secret survive a Bo1 vs Execration. Their next challenge on the main stage: Team Liquid #TI7 pic.twitter.com/EWef4Cx1Gk— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 8, 2017


Next up was a match many blue-shirted members of the crowd were heavily invested in - world Team NP vs. ru Team Empire. In typical C9 and ca Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao fashion, Arc Warden was the hero of choice and the first 40 minutes of the game were somehow both chaotic yet slow. Both teams chipped away at each other's towers until Empire had C9 pinned in their base, but Arc Warden's highground defense were tough to bust through.

What Empire needed to break highground was a fully farmed ua Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok Faceless Void, and that's exactly what they had as the 60 minute mark rolled around. Empire finally had the tools they needed, and Cloud9 were eliminated from TI.

Cloud9 fought hard, but Empire's siege was too much to overcome. Their fans must say goodbye as tournament hopes come to an end. #TI7 pic.twitter.com/42iy7x1ddW— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 8, 2017


eu OG have a long way to go through the lower bracket if they hope to reach the Grand Final, but they secured the first win in their opening main stage match against pe Infamous. There's no denying that Infamous have made Dota 2 history as the first South American team to compete at The International, but they simply weren't on the same level as OG. There were a few sloppy plays from OG towards the end of the game, but it was still over in just under 35 minutes.

Despite being eliminated by OG, Infamous accomplished something no other SA teams have—joining the world's best at The International. #TI7 pic.twitter.com/H9WDunfuit— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 8, 2017


us Digital Chaos* faced cn iG.Vitality in the final match of the day, but unfortunately it was another relatively one-sided affair. DC did a great job of pushing down towers with Death Prophet, and when it came time to siege the highground, iG.V had nothing to deal with us Mason 'mason' Venne's Lifestealer using Rage to deal tower damage, and were out of the tournament with more of a whimper than a bang.

DC's BuLba gets some final pre-draft prep in before heading into the booth against iG.V #TI7 pic.twitter.com/xbG9TEaiXX— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 8, 2017


Header image source: Valve

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    Abelle

    Abelle

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